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AND YET MORE TRIBE MEMBERS JOIN THE CAST OF HIT SHOWS/CHARLES GETS MARRIED
The CBS lawyer series, "The Good Wife," ended last season with Alicia (JULIANNE MARGULIES, 48) and another partner, Cary (Matt Czuchry), preparing to secretly leave their law firm, Lockhart-Gardner, and set up their own firm. BEN RAPPAPORT, 27, has joined the cast, playing a smart young associate who leaves Lockhart-Gardner at Alicia and Cary's invitation and joins their new firm. Rappaport was the star of the short-lived series, "Outsourced," and appeared last season on "Elementary." (Started Sept. 29)

JOSH CHARLES, 41, who co-stars as Will Gardner in "The Good Wife," wed his long-time girlfriend, SOPHIE FLACK, 30, on Sept. 6. No details of the private small wedding were released. Flack, whose mother is Jewish, is a performance and visual artist, novelist and former dancer with the New York City Ballet. Charles' Jewish father was a prominent Baltimore advertising exec and his mother used to write a popular local newspaper gossip column. (His mother wasn't born Jewish. Whether she "converted-in" is unknown to me.).

Last year, Charles told the Hollywood Reporter that during his two-year stint (1998-2000) on the HBO program "In Treatment", which was based on an Israeli TV series, he did work he was "very proud of"--and that the psychological therapy in the series echoed therapy that had helped him. He added that the series touched him for one other reason: "The fact that it's something that started in Israel gave me, as a Jew, a tremendous sense of pride, to be perfectly frank with you. There's such great creativity coming out of that country, and a lot of times we don't always hear about that."

INTERESTED IN YOUR FAMILY HISTORY?

Ten years of doing a Jewish celebrity column has turned Nate Bloom into something of an expert in finding basic family history records and articles mentioning a "searched-for" person. During these 10 years, he has put together a small team of "mavens" who aid his research. Most professional family history experts charge at least a $1000 for a full family history. However, many people just want to get started by tracing one particular family line.

So here's the deal: Send Nate an e-mail at middleoftheroad1@aol.com, and tell him you saw this ad on Jewish World Review and include your phone number (area code too). Nate will contact you about doing a limited family history for a modest cost (no more than $100). No upfront cost. Open to everybody; of any religious/ethnic background.

The second episode of the HBO show, "Boardwalk Empire," found star character Nucky Thompson in Tampa, Florida. The year is 1924, Prohibition is in effect, and Thompson, a powerful underworld figure in Atlantic City, was in Tampa to explore the possibility of a creating a new avenue to bring in (illegal) alcohol to the States and make a lot of money.

While in Tampa, he meets Sally Wheet, a tough-as-nails speakeasy owner. There are hints that these two toughies will become more than friends. PATRICIA ARQUETTE, 45, whose late mother was Jewish, plays Wheet.

AT THE MOVIES
"Parkland," which opens on Oct. 4, weaves together the stories of several real life people whose lives were changed in the immediate aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination, including ABRAHAM ZAPRUDER (1905-1970), the Dallas clothing manufacturer who filmed the famous short movie of the President's motorcade that included the actual moment when the President was hit.

The film is directed and written by PETER LANDESMAN, 48, a former NY Times journalist making his feature film debut.

The HBO original film, "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight," premieres on Sunday, Oct. 5. In 1971, Ali's long legal battle about his refusal to be drafted, on the grounds that he was a conscientious objector, finally made it to the Supreme Court.

The film covers the inside story of the how the Justices wrangled with this difficult case. Famous director BARRY LEVINSON, 71, plays Justice Stewart, with HARRIS YULIN, 75, as Justice Douglas, and Fritz Weaver, 87, as Justice Black.

A Quaker, Weaver was himself a "C.O." during WWII. Probably best known for playing a German Jew in the blockbuster 1978 mini-series, "Holocaust," Weaver said a few years ago that WWII was, perhaps, the one war in his lifetime he should have fought in. He added that wife (since 1997), actress ROCHELLE OLIVER, 76, is Jewish.

"Ali" was directed by STEPHEN FREARS, 72, a top British director whose has helmed films in both the UK ("The Queen") and the States ("High Fidelity"). Raised an Anglican, and secular as an adult, Frears found out not long after his mother's death that she was born Jewish and that she was pleased that her son was engaged to marry a Jewish woman (artist ANNIE ROTHENSTEIN, who has been Frears' wife since 1992 and is the mother of two of his children).

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